Friday Blogplugs

Hey folks,

I hope everyone had
a safe holiday and spent time with family (and friends). I
visited my relatives in New Jersey and have been intermittently getting
work done, fighting a cold and snacking.

Before
I get into the blogplugs, we wanted to share our condolences for two
very special Journalers who passed away this month. Kim fought Breast
Cancer and blogged at "I shaved my legs for this?," passed away on December 26, 2007. Lahoma, who struggled with Myeloid Leukemia, blogged at "Lahoma's Laments,"
passed away on Christmas. Our hearts are with their family and friends
-- please feel welcome to stop by their Journals and share your
condolences. 

* Sugar reminds us that Kwanza kicked off on the 26th which is focuses on life, unity and culture. 

* Jimmy shared a parody of the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem.

* Dana posted an inspiring video for our military members who couldn't be home during the holidays. 
---

Thanks folks for the Friday Blogplugs. Just wanted to let you know that a lot of us will be out of the office until after the New Year ... so hang tight. If you'd like, send your Guest Editor submissions to JournalsEditor@aol.com and we'll review them for next week.

Have a exceptionally safe and enjoyable weekend. See you next year. ;-)

~ Joseph

Tags: blogplugs, aol journals, featured, tagging

Scalzicentric Guest Editor Picks, December 21, 2007

Hi,
AOL J-Land! We're Carly, Karen and Steven, and we're all fans of AOL
Journals'
original "Blogfather", John Scalzi.   For over
four years he's been dispensing interesting links, blogging tips, fun
photos,
news, humor and inspiration over on By
The Way, under contract with AOL. We've been right
there
reading his entries, sometimes as many as five in one day. Now that's
value!
(Actually Karen didn't discover By the Way until May
2004,
but you get the idea.)

Scalzi's contract with AOL is
ending
on December 31st, which will free him up to write more of his
award-winning
science fiction, and his non-fiction books as well. The prospect of
losing his
daily presence on By the Way makes us sad, but we
know it's
probably for the best.  So we decided to pay tribute to
everything
he's done for AOL Journalers and the blogging community as a whole.
We've
started a new AOL Journal, ScalziCelebration,
to collect your tributes, reminiscences, favorite Weekend Assignment
entries,
favorite Monday Photo Shoots, favorite Ficlet by John Scalzi, and any
other Scalzi-centric
material you'd like to celebrate. Please help us thank our Blogfather,
and send
him on his way knowing how much he's been appreciated. Okay?
Okay!

Scalzi's contributions to the blogosphere go
well
beyond By the Way, of course, both in terms of his
own words
and pictures and in what he's inspired in others. We'd therefore like
to
recommend the following:

Monday Photo
Shoots

For years now John Scalzi's
By The
Way and the Monday Photo Shoot have brought
together
photographers on
AOL Blogs and throughout the web. Here are just a few of the
photographers we've
witnessed sharing their photos with the Monday Photo
Shoots.

Nancy of Nancyluvspix
joined in for "Blooms
and Blossoms." Benu4444 shared a wonderful shot for "Me
and My Camera." Joe Loong was covering for John that week so
we
got to see Joe
and his camera too! Betty had trouble with the Monday Photo
Shoot
topic of "Feet
or Cats" but she came up with a winning combination. Kristine
Scalzi, John's wife, got the picture for the Monday Photo Shoot topic
of
"Grab
Bag."

Nancy - Nancyluvspix: "Blooms
and Blossoms."

Benu4444 -
Creativity--Bits and Pieces: "Me
and My Camera."

Betty - My Day,
My Interests Photo Blog: "Feet
or Cats"

If you want to see more, visit the
archives of By The
Way and look for the Monday Photo Shoot topics. Wonderful
photography
and exceptional photographers each!

Weekend
Assignments

Every Thursday,
John Scalzi
inspires us to share our opinions, life experiences and creativity, by
offering
us a Weekend Assignment. Currently, we are working on the 196th
edition! Some
folks came to play once or twice, but others became repeat devoted
participants,
such as Wil, author of the blog, Daily Snooze and
Dawn, who
journals at Carpe Diem - Seize The Day!


Wil
- Daily
Snooze


Dawn - Carpe
Diem - Seize The
Day

Beyond By
the Way

Please
check ScalziCelebration for many more links and
surprises.
For example, we haven't even mention Flat Scalzi yet, or certain
faithful readers (hi, Monponsett!) who leave funny and insightful
comments on most By the Way
entries.

As
for Scalzi himself, he's not disappearing from the Internet. 
Oh, no!
His existing blog entries will remain on By the Way
(where
he hopes to stop by from time to time, "as a civilian") and on the
Ficlets
Blog,
which features his Book Tour Diary and a number of author interviews.
He's also
written a handful of great Ficlets, the ultimate in ultrashort,
interactive
fiction.  And if you like your Scalzi fresh (and who
doesn't?), you
can get your daily serving over on his personal blog, (The)
Whatever, where he's been blogging since
1998.

John Scalzi et al.:
Ficlets
Blog

John Scalzi: Whatever

Thanks, John! And thanks, J-Land and
Magic
Smoke!

Carly, Karen and
Steven

(Photo:
"John Scalzi on Tour" by Karen Funk
Blocher)

Tags: Scalzi, Weekend
Assignment, Monday Photo
Shoot, Tributes,
Guest
Editor

Friday Blogplugs and more...

Hey
folks,

A quiet Friday at the office, as people are
taking time off for the holidays! 'Tis the season and not surprisingly
that is the theme of blogplugs this week. Here are some featured blogplugs
to enjoy:

* Frank and Mary
on their shared Giving
Tree blog, have reached out to the blogging community to help
families in need. At this time of year, they need all the help they can
get.

* Sugar gives her take on
the reason
for the season!

* HeavenlyBama has an
entry
dedicated to our troops who won't be home for
Christmas.

* Sugar would like you to post an entry
about your favorite Christmas
carol and tag it, so others could
visit.

* Krissy asks 
"If you had to be one of the following, for 8 hours a day, during the
week before Christmas, which
would you
choose?"

Now for a little change of
pace..

* Jimmy asks "Why
is Al Sharpton not happy
?"

* Valphish has a very
sad
story about Jessica an 18 year old, who committed suicide.
She belongs to the National Suicide Prevention
Network.

* Luvrte66 encourages you to let your
self-confidence
show

---

Thanks folks for this
week's Friday (evening) blogplugs. Joe Manna will be back with next
weeks blogplugs.  Don't
forget that you can browse all the blogplugs on Technorati any
time!

---

After Guido's excellent guest editor picks last week
(thanks Guido), we have this week, 3 guest editors (mavarin, sepintx,
ondinemonet) paying tribute to John Scalzi.

For those of you who do not know John
Scalzi, he is a blogger, writer and  photographer
extraordinare. He has been with Journals since its beginning. He was
our "Joe Loong" before Joe Loong got here. The Journals team and JLand
will certainly miss his contributions. Our best wishes to John on his
writing endeavors.

If you
would like to become a guest editor please drop us an email at
journalseditor@aol.com

---

Finally, the Journals team would like to
wish all our users and readers a very Merry Christmas and
Happy Holidays. We thank you for all your support and
participation. It is your contributions that has made JLand such a
wonderful
community.

~ Vish and the Journals
team

Tags: blogplugs,
aol
journals, featured, christmas,
scalzi

Journals Update: Regarding Comment Alerts and Commenter E-Mail Addresses

Hi, folks.

Thanks for the feedback you sent us about the new Comment Alerts and the Commenter E-Mail Addresses (which debuted in the R15 release of Journals). The Journals team is aware that it has caused an inconvenience for some Journals users.

The team received several comments
from passionate Journalers who found the Comment Alerts feature to be a
nuisance when disruptive users -- commonly referred to as "trolls" --
post comments and the subscribers are e-mailed a copy of that comment.
While the feature offers compelling benefits, it can be a pain when
someone leaves distasteful comments on your blog.

In addition, many of you didn't like
the idea of having your e-mail address easily available when posting
comments. A number of you have cited that they've even seen more Spam
in their inbox. I'm not sure if that is just a coincidence, but it's
totally a valid concern. Fighting spam is a pain, and we shouldn't make
their jobs any easier (by providing a link to your e-mail address.) To
manage your junk mail settings on AOL, please visit AOL Keyword:
SpamControls.

In response to your feedback, the Journals team limited the commenter e-mail address feature to be visible only for Journal owners who are signed in. We
discussed the value these features provide for you. The team has
disabled the e-mail links in comments for readers (but will remain for
Journals owners). This update will be effective this evening, when the
servers are updated with this change.

We need your help!
To
help us gather some insight on what you think about these features,
please vote in this poll and share your thoughts in the comments below.
This feedback will help us in the next changes for AOL Journals.

You may also share your thoughts in the comments below or write to us at JournalsEditor@aol.com. The Journals team appreciates your thoughts (and patience) about this.

~ Joseph

Tags: AOL Journals, Feedback, Features, Comment Alerts, E-Mail, R15

Guest Editor's Picks 14 December 2007

(above
image courtesy www.blackwell-compass.com)

Hello,
 

My name is Guido, and I write the journal Northern Trip.

I have agreed to start off this first batch of editor's
picks.

I started the blog in 2004, as an on-line
diary to my trip round Northern Scotland. After I settled down in the
small town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, the emphasis shifted to
involvement
with J-land through the VIVI awards (to give them their due) and more
permanently following the death of Pamela Hilger (his1desire), who
passed away
on Easter Sunday 2006.  


At the moment, my blog is subtitled “A view of the
world
from a small island; a view of the island for the world”. I live in the
Isle of
Lewis, off northwestern Scotland,
and I portray its wild weather and stunning scenery, as well as the
small-town politics
you get in a community of 20,000. Anything occurring on the Scottish
mainland
(40 miles or 3 hours away by ferry) will also feature. This varies
between
Donald Trump and his ridiculous golf resort on the coast of
Aberdeenshire
to emergencies at sea.  


Enough about me – on to my picks.


I found it extremely
difficult, but I’ve selected one blog out of a handful of categories,
with the
purpose of highlighting both individual blog and the category. I’ve
tried to
stick to six, as that was the original number of Guest Editor’s
Picks.   


Family Life

Footprints
in the Sand
Linda writes an interesting journal, on
which I admittedly
rarely comment. It is a good example of the ups and downs of family
life, and
the events around her home. She has three sons, succinctly referred to
as Son1,
Son2 and Son3 in decreasing order of age. The oldest is starting out in
adult
life, whilst the youngest is in primary school. There are quite a few
blogs
like that on AOL. As I am based in Europe, and I have
not visited the USA,
it gives me an interesting insight into family life in
America.   


Tagging

This
and that and hockey
To my mind, Donna is among the
best taggers in J-land. A tag
is a graphic with someone’s name on it. A snag ispurely a graphic,
that can be
‘snagged’ using the right-click-save-as feature. Yes, others do equally
creditable work as well. However, I never cease to be amazed at the
intricacies
of these small works of art. When I try anything on Photoshop, I
usually end up
climbing the walls in despair. I suppose I don’t have the patience, or
perhaps
the artistic inclination. Donna was recently commissioned to design a
company
Christmas card, acclaim richly deserved. Apart from tagging, Donna
blogs about
the fortunes or otherwise of her favourite icehockey team.  


Health

I
shaved my legs for this?
Kim was diagnosed with
breast cancer more than a year ago, a
diagnosis which turned her life upside down. She tackled the challenge
with
typical and commendable spirit, although the treatment was less than
successful. Weeks after completing the initial course, the cancer was
back – in
other places. Cancer treatment is physically and mentally exhausting,
but I
never ceased to be amazed at Kim’s gusto in confronting the
difficulties she
found herself facing. At present, she has not put in an entry for
several
weeks, leaving me (and many with me) concerned over the state of
affairs. I highlight Kim’s blog to serve as an example to the
unfortunate many who are in a similar plight, not just cancer but also
chronic
ill health. Although good spirits do not demonstrably improve chances
of
surviving cancer or ameliorating your condition, it does make it easier
to bear
that particular burden. The tags in my sidebar refer to several others,
battling cancer and ill health.

Poetry and
writing

Life
in the Lakes
Jeanie came to my attention a year
ago, with stories of her
life in the Lake District of northern England.
She is an engaging writer, who deserves a broader platform,
particularly after
an entry earlier this week. I have to say that there is generally a
high
standard of writing across J-land, which has made the task of choosing
specific
journals doubly difficult. I also select Jeanie for the simple reason
that
she’s a Scot, who can empathise with what goes on in my neck of the
woods, some
300 miles to the north of her Lakeland
home.

Coping with
life

Raven’s
Lament
Indigo, a lady of nativeAmerican stock,
started journaling
exactly a year ago, and she has a story to tell. She went deaf three
years ago,
after combating decreasing hearing for many years. Apart from that, she
suffered horrendous abuse throughout her years, as a child and as an
adult.
Only now, partially through her writings, is she coming to terms with
that.
Indigo has a daughter, who, as a young adult, is wrenching loose from
her
mother. Some of Indigo’s writing make for difficult reading, but such
is life –
a rosebush, pretty to behold, but with hidden thorns. Many more deserve
mentioning
here for coping with similar problems.  


Animals

Life
on a Bison Farm
Again, a difficult choice in this
category.  Lisa started blogging back in March, and has
shared with us the ups and downs of a household full of pets and
household
animals. As the title of her blog says, she has bison on her farm,
which I find
most intriguing. Apart from that, I recently chatted to Lisa in the
Journals
Chatroom, while her webcam was on. A whirlwind of dogs, cats and other
creatures continually distracted her attention. She has shown genuine
compassion for her animals, and one of her Christmas presents consisted
of a
bulkload of catlitter.  


Overall category
Sugar
(sugarsweet056)

Sugar is a very all-round blogger, who fits in
virtually all
categories that I have highlighted above. She too is devoted to her
‘furrs’,
although her family tend to leave her to her own devices. Not very
good, as
Sugar has her own disabilities to cope with. Since her car gave up the
ghost,
she has been virtually housebound. Nonetheless, she has many a tale to
tell, as
shown in her list of blogs.

(Re)Introducing the Guest Editor tradition

Hi folks,

Happy Friday!!

We
have decided to revive the Weekly Guest Editor column, that Joe Loong
used to host.

We are pleased to have Guido be the guest editor this
week. He is one of our most passionate bloggers. You can find him at :

http://journals.aol.co.uk/pharmolo/NorthernTrip

Guido is very well connected in JLand and a wonderful person. Often you can also find him in the Journals Chatroom.

The next entry in this journal, has been sent to us by Guido.
Hope you enjoy his picks !

If you would like to become a guest editor please drop us an email at journalseditor@aol.com

Have a nice weekend,

---Malika & the Journals team.

Tags: AOL Journals, Guest Editor, blogplugs

Journals R15 Release Tonight Midnight EST (9PM PST)

Hey
folks,

We’ve got
some great news (at least we think so). AOL Journals will be updated to our 15th release (R15)! It will be
installed this evening, adding new features and a couple back-end
optimizations for Journalers. These features were the result of your helpful
feedback that everyone provided in our comments or in our team’s
mailbox.



Updated Comment and Entry Alerts
We’ve
improved
the Alerts feature on Journals so you can subscribe both to a Journal's
Entry Alerts and/or
Comment Alerts. This allows you to receive notification (via e-mail or
service pop-up on AOL or AIM) when an entry is posted or when
someone comments on an entry.



We’d like to let you know that users who have already subscribed for Entry Alerts
on a Journal will continue to receive their Alerts. The same holds true for Owners
who subscribed to their Comment Alerts will continue to receive Comment Alerts.



Alerts are especially useful for Shared Journals where you have multiple
writers to a Journal. So when one writer adds an entry, the other writers or
readers can subscribe to get an Entry Alert. In addition, for popular Journals that
you read, you can now also subscribe to Comment Alerts. Take for example if I
write an entry on Magic Smoke, fellow J-Landers comment on it, you can get an alert
for those comments!



You can subscribe to these alerts by clicking on the Alerts link located along the top of the Journal. It displays links for Entry Alerts and Comment Alerts.

To manage
your individual Alerts (or remove them), you can set your preferences at AOL Alerts.



Commenter E-Mail Addresses
Many of you
have asked for the ability to e-mail the people who add comments to your blog. You
will be able to quickly send an e-mail to your Buddies regarding their comment. You
will notice a link next to the commenter’s screen name. Justclick it and send them
an e-mail.

Link to Magic Smoke

We added
a link to our blog on the top of Journals so you can keep track of
announcements and other Journals related news. The link is on US, UK, Canada and Latino Journals.


Enhanced Site Map
Lastly, we
improved our site map, which helps search engines figure out which blogs to index
first. This means that your Journal entries may be indexed into popular search
engines (like Google or Yahoo) quicker with these recent enhancements. The only side affect
from this change is you might notice more people visit your Journal. ;-)

Please let us know if you see any issues or have any feedback in the comments
below or write to JournalsEditor@aol.com. Thanks, everyone!



---Malika (and the Journals team)

Tags: AOL Journals, Update, R15, Features, Feedback, Alerts, Comments,

Friday Evening Blogplugs

Hey folks,

Friday snuck up on me fairly quick this week. You know today is Friday and here are some featured blogplugs to enjoy:

* Frank and Mary on their shared Giving Tree blog, have reached out to the blogging community to help a family in need.

* maribm56 shares a montage featuring photos of trains.

* Beth finds it hard to hold a grudge from her personal experience.

* Sugar reminds us that today is Pear Harbor day.

* Penny was excited to put up her Christmas decorations and wants to know how you plan on celebrating the holidays this month.
---

Thanks folks for the Friday (evening)
blogplugs. I also wanted to let you know that I won't be able to do
blogplugs next week as I'll be out of the office. Don't
forget that you can browse all the blogplugs on Technorati any time!

Have safe weekend folks!

~ Joseph

Tags: blogplugs, aol journals, featured, tagging